


What A Shame I'm Not There

by Bun (Kymopoleia)



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Violence, max is an orphan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-05 07:57:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12790179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Bun
Summary: It'd been seven years since David last saw Max.He's not even entirely sure that the person sitting in front of him is... his max. Had Max been this blunt? Had he been anything like this?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> lowkey implied danmax if u've read my works before? antis don't interact  
> max is 20 dan is 28 and david is 34/35, thank u thank u

David had picked up smoking again.

'Again'. What a weird word to hear, about something like that. He didn't seem the type, he really didn't. But his sweater smelled like smoke and his fingernails were dirty, the freckles over his nose from years of resting in the sun seemed less noticeable, and he had a loose cigarette butt hanging out of the pocket of his jean jacket.

It was late february, and Max had messaged him out of nowhere. On facebook, where only older people were, where the boy had just sent him a 'hey' out of the blue.

So David had come to a small coffee shop in the town over from Sleepy Peak, eyes scanning the room for the now-twenty-year-old. And didn't that make him feel old, finding out that the kid he'd gotten attached to during the several years he'd had him at the camp.

David lowered his eyes to his coffee, his fingers itching for a smoke. He'd sat outside so they could have some privacy, like Max asked, but it also gave him room to indulge in his bad habit, if he let himself.

But he closed his eyes, tapped his fingers on the table, ignored the urge. He didn't want the former camper to see him like that.

"David?"

Speak of the- Max had never been a devil.

His eyes opened slowly, a smile coming to his lips. "Max! Hey." He started to get out of his seat, but the boy held up a hand and he sank back down, letting the teen do the same across from him.

The last time he'd seen Max Arya, the boy had been thirteen, stepping into his mother's car, the rain pouring down and hiding the tears on his cheeks. Well, they would have, if David hadn't just had him in the counselor's cabin, wiping at them with his thumb and pressing his chapped lips to Max's forehead.

It wasn't raining, though the sky was dark, and Max wasn't crying.

He'd traded in his signature blue hoodies for a red, jeans over his long, long legs, tears at the knees and a little hole near the bottom right of the front pocket. His hair was much longer, pulled into a bun, but other than that? Not many other changes.

It was still his nose, still his sharp eyes, blinking slowly, pupils blown large, his round cheeks and his bitten lips. David remembered the kid's face well, and he wasn't quite sure how to feel now.

"How are you doing?" He tries again, done staring.

The corner of Max's lips quirks up. David notices that they're slightly bruised, as well as his neck over the top of the hoodie, and that his knuckles are split and scabbed over as he rests his palms on the table.

"I'm doing."

David nods slowly. That wasn't much of an answer, was it?

"What brought you back to Sleepy Peak? Or nearby, if you know what I mean."

Max turned to glance at the coffee shop, taking a deep breath. "A few things, but mostly you."

"Me?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, you."

"Well... what about me? Did you just miss me, or did you want something in particular?"

Max pushed his sleeves up so that they rested above his elbows, resting his forearms on the table as he leaned forward. "Something like that."

David's eyes were caught by two massive scars on Max's arms, from his elbows down to the bottom of his thumbs, diagonal and pale and jagged. He felt a pang in his heart as he stared at them, unable to tear himself away.

"Max?"

"David, my eyes are up here."

David bit his lip and lifted his gaze slowly. "What happened?"

"This and that. A lot, I guess?" Max shrugged. "But it's not important."

"Not- not important?" David sputtered. "Then what do you want to do? I thought you wanted to catch up."

Max shrugged again. "Something like that."

David leans forward and reaches for the now-young-man's hands, and Max lets him take them.

"You know you can talk to me, right?" He says softly.

Max offers a smile to him. "I know, you always said that."

"Well, I didn't just say it. I meant it! Max, I'm here for you."

"You haven't been in a long time."

"And that's not my fault, I wasn't exactly- I couldn't follow you home." The redhead's cheeks colored. "Wouldn't that have been so much worse? God, what your parents would have said."

Max nods. "They died."

David freezes.

He'd never been through that, not even in his wildest dreams, his wildest nightmares.

"When?"

"Right after I left camp. Well, a few weeks later. Car crash. Headfirst into a semi." Max leans back in his chair, but doesn't pull his hands away.

David's lip wobbles as he stares at the boy. "Why didn't you call me? Come back to camp?"

"My uncle got custody."

David winced.

He remembered the gruff man, who insisted on calling the boy 'maxine' for years after he transitioned, who always picked the boy up and dropped him off, who was always the first to get rid of him and the last to pick him up.

"And he didn't want to bring you back to us?"

"He moved. To Virginia."

David nodded slowly. He'd noticed a slight lilt in Max's voice now, but wasn't quite sure what it was.

"And then what?"

"And then I met someone."

David blinked. "Like- like a girlfriend? Or someone you're dating?"

"Yeah, but it took a few years." Max cracked a smile and leaned forward again, sighing. "And everything was shitty. Real shitty."

"Did you get out of your uncle's house?" David asked, cocking his head to the side slightly.

"Not quite..." Those greeny teal eyes flicker up and meet his. "He doesn't have a house anymore. He's dead too."

David nodded. Made sense, as much as it hurt. "What happened to him?"

"My boyfriend stabbed him eighteen times and tossed him in the hot tub, then cranked the heat all the way up and put the cover on."

David froze.

In the long seven years since he'd last seen Max, he'd forgotten a lot of the teen's mannerisms. What his favorite food was and how his voice sounded, how his face shifted to a gentle calmness when he fell asleep.

Had Max ever been this blunt? Had he been like this before?

"Your boyfriend murdered your uncle?" David asks softly, swallowing.

"My uncle deserved it."

"That- Max, are you in danger? Is that why you came here?" The redhead leaned forward. "If you're in trouble, you can tell me, but I can't read minds! Just tell me, it'll be alright!"

Max pulled his hands back and leaned back in his chair, holding the back of his own neck and keeping the neutral, bemused smile on his face.

"I'm not the one in danger, David."

The counselor's eyebrows knit together. What did that cryptic sentence mean?

A hand covers his mouth and another covers his chest, someone leaning down to press their lips to his ear. _"Peekaboo~"_


	2. Chapter 2

When David wakes up, he's tied to an office chair, the kind that spun around and had plush arms. His wrists are zip tied in place and his ankles just generally tied together, his shoes gone for some reason, and a thick rope looped around his chest and upper arms, keeping him upright.

As he lifts his head, skull pounding, his eyes focus in the dim room.

Max is sitting on top of a large stack of boxes, wrapping his tongue around a violet lollipop with heavy lidded eyes, leaning back casually. His legs are crossed, but the top one is lifted, the toe of his battered sneakers pressing against someone's chest, against-

"Daniel?!" David exclaimed, eyes widening as he took the scene in.

Max startled and almost toppled, but Daniel grabbed his ankle and kept him in place, eyebrows furrowed. Then the blonde man, hair now cropped much closer to his head, as if he'd had a buzzcut and let it grow out into something passable in the chilly weather. He'd also traded in the white clothing from his time as a camp counselor for some beige sweatpants and a violet flannel, the sleeves rolled up high.

When the man stepped out of his seat and crossed the room to the redhead, he saw flashes of stark white on his skin.

Matching scars to the ones that he'd seen on Max at the cafe.

David's stomach performs some complicated acrobatics, the blonde lifting an eyebrow at him.

"What are you doing to Max?" David snaps.

Daniel's eyebrow rises, and Max turns on his perch, bracing one elbow on his knee and using his other hand to suck obnoxiously on the lollipop.

"What am I doing?" The other man asks, glancing back at the boy.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

David glanced back at his former camper, bruised and scarred and staring, bemused, at the two men.

"You're- you're manipulating him! And hurting him!" David tugs at his bonds. "And I won't let you get away with it!"

"You're evil and you're going to try and brainwash him and kill him, and I can't let you!" A frustrated tear bubbles up as he finds the rope and plastic refuses to budge.

Max's snort cuts through his accusations.

David stared at him.

Max slid down, Daniel immediately tensing and turning bodily towards him as the indian teen walked closer.

David has to remind himself that Max is twenty now, but it's hard.

He walked so silently, one foot in front of the other, only the softest tapping noise coming from farther off in the building. Max pauses a few feet away from him, much closer than Daniel had stopped, and the blonde man comes forward a few steps to shadow him.

If David didn't know better, he'd say that the cultist looked reverent.

But that wasn't true. Couldn't be true.

Max sucked on the lollipop, the action making a loud noise. When he pulled it out his tongue was stained violet, and he held the treat to the side, where Daniel opened his mouth and took it from him.

"I'm not being manipulated or whatever the fuck." Max starts, simply.

David stares at him.

Max leans his head back on Daniel's shoulder for a moment, sighing. "He was there for me during a difficult time in my life, and he's... changed a bit since camp. He doesn't kill kids anymore."

There's a small snort from the blonde.

Max looked at David again. "He left the cult. He's good for me."

David sputters. "He's a murderer! And he's, what, twice your age?"

Max shrugs. "Hardly. He's younger than you, camp man."

"That's not a good thing, younger than me is still too old! How do you even know what you want?" He's starting to feel desperate, like nothing he's saying is getting through.

Max rests a hand on his stomach. "I needed your help."

David blinks.

He'd almost forgotten that the blonde was hovering over Max creepily, but the man tucks his chin onto the darker boy's shoulder, piercing blue eyes trained on David.

"David..." Max sighs.

His heart starts beating too quickly.

"I'm pregnant."

The world pauses.

David's brain pauses working momentarily. "You're- what?"

It felt like the world pauses for a moment.

About eight million things that shouldn't click together suddenly click, and it's way too much. How the man had been looking at his former camper, how Max was being so secretive, how tender the two seemed together.

But in the same breath, it left him with more questions.

"How?"

There's another pause.

Max's eyebrows rise.

"Well," Daniel interjects. "When two people love each other _very_ much-"

Max taps his nose and he blinks in surprise, quieting.

"Exactly how you think, idiot." Max replies.

David suddenly wants to vomit.

"Did you atleast want it?"

"Want it?" The blonde asks. "Are you kidding me? He came onto me first."

Max stole the lollipop out of his hands and gave it a firm suck before shoving it back in the blonde's mouth. He made a gagging noise but rested his chin on Max's shoulder anyways, wrapping his arms around the other's middle.

"It's very simple." The brunette continues. "I wanted it, and we did it, and now I've got a bun in the oven."

"And what do you want from me?" David's eyebrows furrow.

"Dan's no saint," He reaches back to pat the man's short hair, running his nails through it. "And he's very protective. If I wanted to get medical care, he'd be right there with me, get caught, and get arrested."

"So I'm..."

"Think of it as a chance for you to finally use all of that first aid camp training." Max shrugs.

"Max, first aid is when someone trips and sprains their ankle, or gets scratched by a vine! How am I supposed to take care of you for, for nine months, and deliver a baby? I've never done any of that before! You need an actual doctor, actual trained physicians." The redhead closed his eyes and shook his head. "I can't do this for you."

Max stepped forward, his partner staying put and letting him go. The brunette takes the few steps until he's right in front of David, then he leans down, tipping the older man's chin up with his middle finger.

David opens his eyes slightly.

"Well, you'd better try, camp man." Max's face is serious, no amount of arguing would change his mind.

"Max..." David whispers.

Max stands back up, and all he can do is look up.

He can't leave a former camper, especially this one, alone for this. He can't betray his trust, no matter how much his own heart is screaming.

David hangs his head.

"Fine."


End file.
